While it’s no surprise that the Varsity Blues boast stand-out players, it never hurts for the CIS to recognize them. Field hockey players Kyesia O’Neale, Hannah Tighe, and Kaelan Watson were named All-Canadians, as well as men’s soccer players Nordo Gooden and Darragh McGee.
The Varsity: How long have you been playing soccer?
Nordo Gooden: I have been playing soccer for as long as I can remember. Growing up in Jamaica, soccer was what we did in our spare time, although I never really played competitively until I was about 11.
Darragh McGee: Coming from Ireland, where the game of soccer has a considerable heritage and tradition amongst rural communities, I began my playing career with my local soccer club at the age of six, before progressing through the youth system in Donegal. Following that, I signed semi-professional and subsequently professional contracts at the age of 18 with Finn Harps FC and later Derry City FC before moving to England to study for my master’s degree.
TV: Going to U of T comes with high academic dedication. How do you balance your school life and varsity sports?
DM: Achieving the elusive balance between academic and sporting endeavours represents the biggest challenge for any student-athlete and during my short time in Toronto, I have seen many talented players struggle to maintain high levels of achievement in both facets of their lives. Speaking from my own experience of juggling my academic commitment as a PhD candidate with the captaincy of the men’s soccer program, I believe the key issue is time management. Whilst many believe the student athlete lifestyle is one of great privilege, I would argue that it is also one of great dedication, determination, and at times, of total chaos. The truth is that this often involves late nights and early mornings as I strive to ensure deadlines are met and I am not neglecting any aspect of my academic development. However, this balance is something that is learned and developed so as a senior player, I do everything in my power to guide the younger members of the squad as they become acclimatised to the less glamorous side of being a student athlete.
NG: Being a part of the team really teaches you how to balance everything in your life and prioritize. Our two-hour practices are used as my break from studying, and travel times and hotel times on the road are vital for getting work done. Because we practice at nights, it enables us to get up early enough to start getting things done. Everyone on the team specializes in something educational, so if a teammate ever needs help with anything in a course, he can always get help from someone on the team, we have TAs and senior players who even if they can’t help, know someone who can.
TV: How long have you been playing field hockey?
Hannah Tighe: I’ve been playing field hockey for about 11 years now.
Kyesia O’Neal: I’ve been playing field hockey since ninth grade, so for roughly nine years.
TV: How do you find the female field hockey program in comparison to your high school field hockey career?
HT: A large part of why I became so passionate about field hockey is because of my high school experience. I had amazing coaches who were passionate about the sport, and gave us lots of opportunities to play. The program at U of T has that same passion. Where it differs from high school is in our desire to compete and excel. The U of T program has a tradition of excellence and every year we work to carry on that tradition. Over the past four seasons I have learned a lot more about the game, and greatly developed my skills thanks to our awesome coaching staff. Our amazing facilities and support from the university is also something that wasn’t available in high school and is a big reason for our success.
KO: It is on a completely different level. In high school, the majority of the players were just introduced to the sport, like myself. So those years were spent developing basic technical skills. Coming to U of T was a big step as it is a high performance program. It develops your basic skills but also develops player’s game concepts and fitness making us more well-rounded hockey players.
Kaelan Watson: John DeSouza puts everything he has into this program. He is so passionate and committed to our team, and it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before. He gives our team so much heart it cannot even be compared to a high school program, or any field hockey team in the CIS.
TV: How do you feel about this season in comparison to your previous ones at U of T?
HT: We have approached every season with the same drive for success and desire to win and this year was no different. Our success this season came because we were blessed with some talented rookies and we really came together as a team. The CIS All-Canadians did not win this championship, every person that was a part of this team on the field won it.
KO: A couple of years before this, we started on such a high note and unfortunately did not perform at our full potential during CIS in the years right after. This year however, I felt we clicked at just the right time. We stepped up when we needed to and were able to reclaim our CIS title. We won our last CIS Championship in 2007 and so winning a second one during my time here, especially during my final year, makes it all the better.
KW: This season was really about coming together as a team and trying to use our skill over our experience. We are generally a pretty young team so it was tough to overcome the absence of experience but in the end our hard work really paid off. In my first year we were the best team in the CIS on paper, but by the time we got to CIS we looked almost like a high school team because our chemistry just didn’t happen. We let experienced players take control and try to win it on their own. This year we went into CIS feeling like underdogs after losing the OUA and knowing we were the youngest team there. I think that feeling of knowing people didn’t expect a lot from us is what really drove us to the win. We were determined to prove them wrong. We played as if we had nothing to lose, and it really paid off. We were so calm and collected for every game and hardly made any mistakes. I think in the end that was what really brought us success; we were able to minimize our mistakes while capitalizing on the other teams mistakes. It made us look like a team of all-stars but really we just all knew our role and how to successfully fulfill it in the 70 minutes of each game.
TV: How do you feel after receiving the title of All-Canadian?
NG: I am very honored to win the CIS All-Canadian Award. It has always been a goal of mine since my first season with the team. I have been striving to achieve it ever since, and to do it in my final year shows that I have developed as a player throughout my years with the Varsity Blues. As my coach told me, I have built a reputation in this league and even though we as a team failed to achieve our ultimate goal of winning national gold, winning the CIS All-Canadian was a bit of a consolation.
DG: Winning the 2010 CIS All Star capped off a fantastic season for me personally and was reflective of how much I have been enjoying this year. I began the season by establishing that as my personal goal and I was confident that if I gave the program my full commitment, success would follow both for me personally and collectively as a team. Having spent my first year playing out of position and hampered by niggling injuries, I felt I had a point to prove in Canadian soccer — to deliver on the billing I was given when I moved here having played professionally in Ireland. Everyone enjoys being presented with awards and I’m no different in that regard — the CIS All-Canadian Award was confirmation that I am progressing as a player, but I am by no means content. I would have happily swapped my personal accolades for a place in the CIS Final this year and I am now looking ahead to next season and the quest to improve the team and myself as we attempt to achieve gold in Victoria this November.
HT: Receiving CIS All-Star recognition was just icing on the cake of winning the national championship, and I like to think goes to show that hard work pays off. Playing on a team of such talented and competitive athletes forces us to challenge and bring out the best in each other.
KW: It’s pretty unreal to be acknowledged as one of the top players in the country. It’s a great feeling to win an award that you see other amazing players win because it makes you think that you are as good as they are. It’s really cool to see your other teammates win the award with you because you know how hard they work behind the scenes and you know the amazing skill set that they possess, it’s just so great to see that other people recognize it too. It makes you proud to play with them.
